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Suicide Squad (Full Review)

Batman v Supermanleft many of us with a bad taste in our mouths. Not because it was glaringly awful, but because it was wildly disappointing considering how good it could’ve been and considering how good we wanted it to be. But because we love superhero movies (more than the films critics who wish the most profitable film genre would die off), we are able to get excited about the next one as if we were never scorned. Suicide Squad is the latest attempt by DC Comics and Warner Bros. at getting audiences fully on board with their cinematic universe.

Forget Batman v Superman, although it takes place in the same world, SuicideSquad delivers a drastically different tone and feel. The film tells the story of Task Force X, a group of criminals assembled together by ruthless government agent Amanda Waller (Viola Davis), to carry out a deadly mission to stop an out of control sorceress (Cara Delevingne). If they succeed, they’ll get time off of their prison sentences; if they don’t, they’ll be blamed for everything… or die. Included in the squad are Deadshot (Will Smith) an assassin who never misses; Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie), right hand woman to Batman (Ben Affleck)’s arch nemesis, The Joker (Jared Leto); El Diablo (Jay Hernandez) a fire spouting former gang banger; Boomerang (Jai Courtney), an Australian thief; and Killer Croc (Adewale Akinnouye-Agbaje) a reptilian, man eater. Wrangling the team of degenerates is U.S. Colonel Rick Flag (Joel Kinnaman).

DC’s last film failed partially because it was far too dreary, and it seems here as if they tried to make this one as much like a 90’s music video as possible. Sometimes this works, adding flare and humor. Other times, it just feels disorienting. But it isn’t a big issue. The horrendous narrative structure, however, that’s a completely different story.

Suicide Squad ends up being a fun mess, but a mess nonetheless. First, let’s address the messy elements. There are plenty of colorful characters with fun backgrounds and personalities here, but it appears as if Director David Ayer has shiny toys he doesn’t quite know how to play with. Some characters, like Smith’s Deadshot and Robbie’s Harley Quinn, are given plenty of moments to shine and breathe life into the sloppy story. But the majority of the Squad just seem like random pawns that are barely necessary. Characters like Katana (Karen Fukuhara), an assassin bodyguard to Rick Flag, are both irrelevant and useless. And the entire objective of the movie feels out of place and uninspired, like something out of a video game, which leads to a relatively hokey final act.

Then there’s Jared Leto’s underdeveloped and hardly pertinent Joker who’s really only here to give origin to Harley Quinn. Leto misses the mark partially because the character is poorly designed. He doesn’t need to be Heath Ledger, Jack Nickloson, Mark Hamill, or even Caesar Romero… but the Joker HAS to be charismatic and menacing to not feel annoying. This version is neither and just comes off weird for the sake of being weird. But it isn’t necessarily the actor’s fault, because The Joker should never be used as a sideshow.

But beyond the poorly placed flashbacks and inefficient juggling of characters, there is a ton of potential where something great could’ve and should’ve formed. Viola Davis is deliciously wicked as Amanda Waller. From snappy dialogue to just being a bad ass, Will Smith is phenomenal every time he’s on screen as Deadshot. Margot Robbie is perfect as Harley Quinn, and even Jai Courtney and Jay Hernandez’s characters are great when given their seldom chances. Suicide Squad isn’t a disaster, unless you expected it to be something groundbreaking. But it is a missed opportunity to create something that could’ve been DC and Warner Bros’ most exhilarating moment. Instead it’s a chaotic two hours of weak plot and a few poor attempts at endearment, saved only by a collection of talented actors.